


Hey brother

by Hopefully_not_a_shitty_ballerina



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Family Feels, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of past abuse, More tags to be added, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:53:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21737890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopefully_not_a_shitty_ballerina/pseuds/Hopefully_not_a_shitty_ballerina
Summary: They had said since they were children that they would die for each other. Pledged their love, pledged that they would only leave each other in death.“And even then.” Pietro would say, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, “I won’t leave you for long then.”“How do you know I will be the first to die?” Wanda would ask, Pietro would kiss the top of her head, or smile at her, and speak with his stupid grin.“Because, I am older.” He’d say, “I have to protect you.” the conversation usually stopped there. This kind of conversation would happen more than it should. The pair would end up cold, starved, or out of a shelter for too long, and their chances would look slim. Pietro would do everything he could to make things better, but in a failing economy, there wasn’t always something that he could do. Or that Wanda could do for that matter.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 7





	Hey brother

They had said since they were children that they would die for each other. Pledged their love, pledged that they would only leave each other in death. 

“And even then.” Pietro would say, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, “I won’t leave you for long then.”

“How do you know I will be the first to die?” Wanda would ask, Pietro would kiss the top of her head, or smile at her, and speak with his stupid grin.

“Because, I am older.” He’d say, “I have to protect you.” the conversation usually stopped there. This kind of conversation would happen more than it should. The pair would end up cold, starved, or out of a shelter for too long, and their chances would look slim. Pietro would do everything he could to make things better, but in a failing economy, there wasn’t always something that he could do. Or that Wanda could do for that matter. 

Pietro’s death changed Wanda. Her immediate grieving, it was painful. Not just for her, but those around her. She was driven, she _swore_ that she could bring him back, and no amount of bribing from anyone on the team helped. She tried therapy, but it lasted less than an hour, and it ended with a wall being blown out upstairs. T’challa had the wall repaired and said nothing about it. 

They all new that Wanda didn’t want help. While some other members took better to having loved ones ripped from them. (not Steve, he literally flew a plane into the arctic ocean after Bucky ‘died’) Wanda was on the worse end of coping. Pietro was on ice somewhere in Wakanda, Brain dead and suffering, in Sam’s opinion. He was somewhere that Sam couldn’t find him, and Steve wouldn’t say. 

Wanda took to spending days away from the base, which was fine, as T’challa clearly stated that none of them were prisoners in Wakanda. The problem was that no one could pinpoint were Wanda was going, and she definitely wasn’t forthcoming. It was only recently that she stayed close to the base, never leaving. Shuri too, had stopped leaving her lab, conversing with Wanda and working late into the night.

“Don’t you think it’s time to let him go? He’s brain dead for fuck’s sake.” Sam whispered, T’challa sighed. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation. Shuri worked Day and night with Wanda, caring for the comatose man who’d once been the speedster.

“It is her only family, let them try.”

“Isn’t this getting a little out of hand?” Sam said, they stood in lobby to Shuri’s lab, Sam had been denied access again.

“Sam,” Steve began, “Let her grieve, look, we all take turns watching the kid, who’s it going to hurt if it goes on for a little longer?”

“The kid, Steve!” Shouted Sam, “He’s brain dead! Shouldn’t we let him rest?”

“it’s not our choice to make,” Steve said patiently, Bucky, who was patiently following Steve around, nodded in agreement.

“her choice, he’s all she’s got. Imagine if it was your mom…”

Sam grit his teeth and turned away. “If it was my mother, she would already be at rest.” He stormed off after saying this, Steve sighed.

“That went well.”

“Always does with Sam,” Steve said. He knew that it was hard on Sam being in Wakanda, away from his family. He was quick to temper; without his usual support group of veterans he was out of place in a new world. Not as much as Bucky, per say, but you get the idea.

Bucky followed Steve into the room and stood happily by the door as Steve took the seat from Clint. Pietro stirred on the bed, out of the corner of his eye, Bucky saw something blue streaking towards him, but before he had time to react.

“папа?”

FWUMP

The word sent a shock through Bucky long before Pietro smacked into him. It all happened too fast, and honestly, it really wasn’t what Bucky was expecting to happen the second that Pietro finally woke up. Mind you, Bucky wasn’t even supposed to be in the room, He’d followed in Steve, who was supposed to be relieving Clint. They had been taking turns watching over him while Wanda was away- someone Bucky hadn’t really had much of a chance to interact with, aside from their awkward little parking lot fight with Stark. 

“What?” Bucky said as Pietro shot off of the bed, slamming into Bucky and startling Steve, who until a few seconds earlier had been about to doze off in the chair. 

“What?” Steve echoed, looking between Bucky’s disgruntled face and the way that Pietro had plastered himself to Bucky’s front. Bruce was on them in a second, rushing into the room followed by Shuri, who was beside herself with happiness. 

“He’s awake!” she crowed, punching the air and dancing around the room, “It worked, I was- uh...?” She stopped her victory dance, taking notice of the situation before her. Bucky was staring down at the face pressed into his stomach. The kid quickly went limp, all dead weight sagging against Bucky. He grunted and did his best to pry the kid’s deadlocked arms from around him.

“Buck?” Steve questioned, “I don’t know all that much Russian, but I’m pretty sure he just called you ‘papa’.” Steve made a motion with his hands, something that closely resembled a _what the fuck_ kind of vibe. Bucky did his best to rearrange the falling kid with one arm, all while trying to grasp at a memory that was tugging at the back of his mind. To his relief, Bruce saved him.

“It’s possible that Mr. Maximoff was confused upon seeing Bucky, someone we can assume he’s never met before in his life, but who shares common facial features to himself and even his sister.” Bruce stopped for a moment, looking between Bucky’s face and Pietro’s. “Actually….” 

Shuri gasped, looking between the pair, “Are you his dad? I fixed both of you! I can do a blood test!” She ran from the room, speaking into her bracelet and excitedly talking to lab techs. 

“Look- “Bucky said, his voice tired, “I don’t have a kid!” He looked down at Pietro’s face, just as a mental image of a smaller, very similar face appeared. “At least… I don’t think I have a kid.” Steve pulled Pietro from him, just as Bruce opened his mouth to speak.

“It appears,” he said, opening up a holo-screen with his Wakanda tech Bracelet, “That you have two children, Sergeant Barnes.” Bucky looked at the hologram and saw that Shuri had sent over something to Bruce, and while the picture didn’t make much sense to him, paired with Bruce's words, it was life changing.

“But…?” Bucky began, He stopped, and closed his mouth. He didn’t remember a woman. He looked up at Bruce, his brows knitted together. “How?” 

Bruce smiled, “Well you see,” He said, as he turned to fuss over Pietro a little, “When a man and woman love each other very much….” 

“Not _that_ , I know _that._ ” Bucky gripped his hair with his hand, trying to rationalize the information in his head. “I’m 98 years old for Christ’s sake, I want to know how this-” he motioned towards Pietro, “-is possible, it says in my file that I’m… you know.” Bucky let out a breath through his nose, trying to find himself in his emotions. “It says in my file that they… took my bits… And they did! I don’t have them anymore! Ask Steve, he’ll vouch!”

Steve, who seemed a little shell shocked, snorted and looked away, thrusting his hands into his pockets. “Not the time Buck...”

“All of them?” Bruce wondered aloud. “Because a complete vasectomy……”

“No! I’ll stop you there, just some of them!”

“Well it appears that since the twins exist, your vasectomy happened after they were conceived.” Bruce said gently, placing his hands out in front of him in an attempt at a soothing mannerism. “Maybe we should leave this room, in the event that Pietro wakes again and is distressed to have you in his room.”

Bucky quickly exited, followed by Steve and Bruce, who closed the door behind him. “What about Wanda?” He asked, and before anyone could say anything, Wanda was there, storming down the hallway towards Pietro’s room, her eyes wide.

“He’s awake?” She asked, she brushed past the men into the room, only to stop short when she saw him on the bed. “But I thought I felt...” She began. Steve placed a hand on her arm, gently. 

“He was awake,” Steve said, “He overexerted himself.” Wanda’s shoulders dipped, and for a few moments Bucky was sure she’d kneel down on the floor and scream. But as quickly as the emotion passed over her face, it was gone. She rounded on the men, facing them directly. 

“Were you here when he woke up?” She demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at Steve, “What did he say?” Steve shot a glance at Bucky, who had all but hidden himself behind Steve, even Bruce had backed away. He may not have been hostile about it, but everyone knew that he hadn’t completely forgiven Wanda for what she made him do. 

“He seemed to be looking for his father.” Steve said, Wanda’s eyes flicked over to Bucky, and then back to Steve. Steve noticed, and made a mental note of it. So, Wanda knew, and hadn’t said anything. Wanda drew back, her face going lax. She snorted and rubbed a hand over her face. She turned and began walking away from them. 

“Let me guess,” She called behind her as she walked, “He didn’t find what he was looking for.” Steve turned to look at Bucky, whose jaw was all but resting on the floor.

“She _knows,”_ he hissed. He looked at Steve, and then pointed down the hall, “Why didn’t she say anything?” Bruce rolled his eyes and patted Steve on the back. 

“I’ll leave this one to you,” he mumbled. Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. 

“I don’t know!” he exasperated, “Really, I don’t. I can’t see into her head. Maybe she thinks you don’t remember,” He began to walk down the hallway, Bucky following closely behind. “Or maybe she thinks you’re a deadbeat dad who doesn’t care about her.” Buck blew a raspberry at Steve and sighed. Was he? A deadbeat dad?  


It was a few hours before Pietro woke again, and this time Wanda was there to comfort him. They rambled in quiet Slovakian Pietro became more and more animated as the minutes drew by.

“I saw him Wanda, I know I saw him!”

“Hush,” She hissed, she grabbed for his hand to draw him back to the bed, but he evaded her. “Come, please sit brother, you are unwell.” Pietro ignored her and began pacing around the room, rambling to himself as he did.  
  


“What’s he doing?” Bucky demanded, they watched on as Pietro went in and out of super speed, his powers shorting out every few seconds as he tore apart the room, he was in. Wanda left the room with a sigh; she’d tried her reasoning, but he couldn’t calm down.

“He’s hurt,” Bruce said simply, squeezing his hands together, “He can’t go at a fast enough speed to phase through anything.” Bucky rolled his eyes, zooming in on the feed slightly. 

“Yeah, I get that. I want to know why he’s destroying the room.” Clint laughed, a course angry sound, and sat down on the counter beside the screen. He was holding a pot of coffee with one hand and adjusting his hearing aid with the other. 

“He’s a kid.” Clint said, “Hell, he’s human. I’d destroy the room too if I were him.” He took a swig of the coffee, throwing it back like his life depended on it, which to be fair, it probably did at this point, before pointing at the screen with the pot. “He’s throwing a temper tantrum.”

Natasha took the pot of coffee from Clint, much to his protest, and set it down away from him. “He’s an adult.” Natasha said, she grasped the hearing aid that Clint was messing with, taking it from his ear. After a few seconds she handed it back to him with a shake of her head. “The battery’s fried.”

“Awe no,” Clint whined snatching the hearing aid, “I just got it fixed!”

“He’s an adult who just found out his father is alive.” Thor said, speaking up for the first time. He’d been silently watching the feed as Pietro continued to destroy the room. “I would have reacted similarly. I _did_ ,” He said, moving towards the door. “I reacted horribly when I found out that Loki was alive, as you all had the, uh, _privilege_ of witnessing.” Thor put a hand on the door, before turning back to them. “Let me talk to him, once he has calmed. I think we can reach an understanding.”

“Maybe Barnes should…” Natasha began, but Bucky put up an arm to quiet her, his eyes never leaving the screen. The fact that he had kids was alien to him. He wanted to say he felt some kind of fatherly warmth towards them, but nothing came. He had vague memories of children, but he couldn’t discern them from memories of his siblings.

“Yeah, go ahead. It can’t hurt.” Thor left, shutting the door behind him, Clint went soon after, grabbing the pot of coffee from where Natasha had put it before slowly walking towards the door, flinching slightly when Bruce patted him on the back. Bruce, for his part, looked rough. 

Bucky continued to watch the screen as the pair talked in hushed voices, “No, it’s fine, I’ll talk to him, get some sleep.” And soon, it was the two of them alone in a room. Bucky could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up, as memories of their last time alone together surfaced. 

“Yes?” He said, after what seemed like an eternity of standing in relative silence.

“Going for the parent of the year award, Batman?” She asked, she circled him like a client, just the way she’d been taught. Bucky ignored the bait and sat down, motioning towards the chair beside him.

“Barnes.” He said nothing, just stared at the screen, stewing in his juices. “ _James_ ,” She repeated. Bucky’s shoulders dropped as he sighed. 

“What?” He asked, turning to look at her, she stood in grey sweats too big to be hers, with her hands clasped in front of her. She dropped her arms and sighed. 

“This?” She said, motioning towards him and the screen, “is possibly the biggest fuck up I have ever seen in the history of my life, and-” She continued, sitting down opposite him, and leaning forward on her thighs, “I was the one who dumped all of shield's files onto the internet.” 

“What am I supposed to do?” He asked, turning his gaze back to the screen. Pietro had calmed down a little, and was sitting with his back against the door, his head resting against his knees. “ _I_ didn’t do this to him!”

“Not directly, no.” She said, “But he grew up knowing you as his father, and maybe you didn’t know what they were going through, or you didn’t have the ability to change it….”

“Of course, I couldn’t change it!” Bucky growled, “Do you think they asked the soldier if he wanted children? Do you think the soldier courted their mother? Do you think they were created out of anything other than a want for a test subject?” Though his voice didn’t rise, a bitter edge developed as he spoke. “I didn’t want this. Not for me, or for them. I don’t know how to fix this, or how to be a father.”

Natasha grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Maybe you should start by talking to them. Steve too, you can’t figure anything out if you don’t talk about it.”

Bucky looked back to the screen, and watched his children interact with the god of thunder. Pietro had trouble sitting still…… something that seemed familiar to him, it brought a feeling of nostalgia with it. Bucky shook it off and looked at the screen again.

The conversation was going well, the duo had called down the speedster, enough so that he had resigned to a bitch face and crossing his arms over his chest, rather than zooming around the room destroying things. Silently, Natasha sat forward and pushed a button, allowing sound to enter the room.

“…. Dead for how long?”

“six months,” Wanda said quietly, Pietro smiled, an odd grimace on his face.

“So, I died long enough for the Hype to die down…” He began, Wanda flung her hand out and smacked him, a teary smile on her face.

“You idiot,”

“Alright; alright, I’ll hold off the jokes,” He nudged Wanda with his shoulder blade, smiling, “…. for now.” Bucky snorted and rubbed his hand over his face.

“Will you get a load of him?” he muttered, “a real funny one.”

“I’m willing to bet you used to be like that.”

“Me?” Bucky sat up and looked at her, “No, not me, Steve? Fuck yes Steve was like that, Mr. I-can-fight-any-man. Of course, he was like that! But me?” he shook his head. “I was a good kid, didn’t give no talking back no nothin’.”

“I’m sure,” Natasha said, they turned their attention back to the window, watching again the interactions. Thor stood, and gently clapped Pietro on the back.

“Always a pleasure, my young friend, when you are ready, come and find me, we have much to discuss.”

“Maybe you should go in there….” Natasha suggested, Bucky shook his head. He didn’t’ think it was the right time. _Would there ever be a right time?_

“Maybe I should let them to themselves….” He stood and walked towards the door, taking once last look towards the door. Natasha walked behind him and put her hand on his back.

“Or I could thrust you into parenting.”

“What?” Natasha opened the door and Kicked Bucky in the spine, sending him forward into the room. Thor, still saying his goodbyes, took this as his chance to leave. The twins stood there awkwardly, watching watch them.

“SOOO.” Bucky began, Pietro watched him with cold blue eyes. Buck lifted his arm up as a kind of _I’m not here to fight_ motion. “I guess we’re related?”

“You guess?”

“I mean, I just found out a few hours ago….”

“You mean you don’t remember us? At all?”

“not really, I mean…”

“I spent so much time worrying about you, and what you thought of me!” Pietro spit out, “They told me for _years_ that you left because I was a failure.” He clenched his fists, he was vibrating, so fast that if you didn’t watch his outline, you wouldn’t see it. 

“Kid, look, I didn’t…” Bucky began, Pietro cut him off with a laugh. _Well that escalated quickly!_

“Didn’t what?” He challenged, “Didn’t ask for this? Didn’t ask for fucked up kids?”

“Pietro, I know that you’re angry with me,” Bucky tried again, Wanda snorted from her seat in the corner. Bucky ignored her and tried to keep his face passive. “But maybe we need to have this conversation when you calm down a little bit.” 

“Calm down!” Pietro yelled, “I am perfectly calm! I’m just finding out that my father doesn’t fucking remember me!” Bucky place his hand out in front of him, in what would have been a soothing manner, if he had two arms, but with just one it looked a little awkward. Pietro swung for Bucky, only to be caught by Wanda at the last moment. He was still wobbly, still unstable.

“I never said I didn’t remember _anything;_ I just don’t remember…. Everything.” Bucky tried. He could feel himself losing footing. The twins obviously wanted something from him that he didn’t have. A father, a mentor, maybe a hug. 

“Be grateful for that.” Pietro said bitterly, “But don’t worry. Every kid wants to excuse their dad’s fuck ups until they get older.”

“I think we need to start over,” Wanda said, speaking up for the first time. “We are putting too many hopes on him Pietro. They manipulated him too, it isn’t all his fault.”

Pietro turned away from the, aggressively running his hands through his hair, pulling at the tips and making little dying noises in the back of his throat. 

“So, what do we do now?” He asked, still faced away from them, “We start over, but how? We’re already grown. He has no idea what to do.”

Wanda started to hum, a song that Bucky couldn’t quite place. Pietro tilted his head and closed his eyes.

“Hey brother…” Wanda began, Pietro sighed and dropped his arms his whole body going lax.

“You know, I hate that song.”

“Ah but you love it!” Wanda grabbed his hands and began to sway side to side, humming a song. Pietro slowly began to hum with her. Bucky at a loss for what to do, stayed were he was and watched the twins. “for you…”

“There is nothing in this world I wouldn’t do,” Pietro mumbled. He ran his fingers through his hair again and sighed. “I will try,”

Wanda turned to Bucky, and frowned, “For you, a gift, for forgiveness,” She said, Bucky opened his mouth to speak but was promptly punched in the face. He stayed stone still, stunned.

“I’m sorry…?” He said, Wanda nodded.

“You will be.” She took Pietro’s arm and dragged his fading form back to the bed. His energy was leaving as fast as it had came. Bucky stood there for a moment, before slowly turning to leave.

“That went well…” He muttered.

Bucky sat at the kitchen table, holding an ice pack to his face. Steve walked in, finally, and just stared. He leaned against the doorframe, with his arms crossed over his chest. 

“You know,” Bucky said, closing the one eye that didn’t have an icepack on it. “I just want to say, that the last few days have really kicked my ass, so if you came in here to make me feel like shit, well, the world’s beat you to it.” Steve snorted, and shook his head, pushing himself off of the door frame and walking over to the counter. 

He pulled out two shot glasses, and a bottle of alcohol. Steve placed the glasses in front of Bucky and filled them both up to the brim before sitting down opposite him and shooting back its contents.

“We can’t get drunk Stevie.” Bucky reminded him, nevertheless he picked up the shot glass and sniffed. What he got was a strong sent not dissimilar to moonshine. “Is this nail polish remover?”

Steve bit out a laugh and filled his own glass back up. “Something like that. It was a birthday present from Thor.” He tipped a second shot down his throat before speaking. “Drink it, it’ll make your face hurt less.”

“It’s not even the pain.” Bucky said with a sigh, setting his ice pack down in the table, “It’s really just the surprise of it.” Bucky knocked back the alcohol and shuddered. It definitely tasted like nail polish remover, or maybe paint thinner. He couldn’t decide which. Steve laughed again, filling Bucky’s glass for him. 

“Oh?” He asked, a smile playing on his lips.

“Yeah,” Bucky said flatly, tipping back the shot. It went down easier this time, “I can honestly say that getting punched by my own daughter for being a deadbeat dad wasn’t something I thought I was going to be dealing with this week.”

Steve snorted, letting his face fall into the crook of his arm as he laughed silently. Bucky rolled his eyes and put his glass down, grabbing the bottle instead and tipping his head back. The alcohol burned, more than anything had in years. It brought tears to Bucky’s eyes and hair to his chest. It almost made him feel better. Almost. 

“What do I do?” Buck asked as he passed Steve the bottle. Steve found handling Bucky’s newfound fatherhood equally as difficult to deal with. 

“You have to talk to them,” he said, taking a long swig from the bottle. Bucky made a move to get up, but Steve pulled him back down into his seat, “Not now. Too drunk to talk to them again. Wait a day or two. I’ll set something up.”


End file.
